


Haunted

by thecrystallinecryptid



Category: Mad Rat Dead (Video Game)
Genre: ... kinda, Fix-It, Gen, MASSIVE spoilers if you haven't finished the game yet, only tagged major character death cuz the story kinda lingers on it for a while
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:15:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28865391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecrystallinecryptid/pseuds/thecrystallinecryptid
Summary: Mad Rat wasn't supposed to make it through the night. Heart tried not to think about it, distracting himself with the fixes they went back and re-did after the reversal. They befriended the cat, and they even lived with the girl now. Heart seemed to almost forget about it by the time they went to sleep... just as Mad Rat had hoped.But neither of them could have planned for this.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35





	Haunted

As the two lied there on the windowsill, they felt... strangely calm, given the situation. With Heart being busy carrying Mad Rat around and redoing what the two had accomplished earlier, they both had ample time for their problem to slip their minds. The black cat from earlier now had a rat-free diet. Together, all three of them stopped the girl, who even managed to convince her parents to take in this cat with an adorable heart-shaped patch of fur on his chest. It seemed that, finally, as the two watched the sun set... the problem went to the back of Heart's mind as he rested his head, watching the sunset with his friend. The rat rested between the cat's head and a paw, smiling weakly. Upon feeling the other's breathing slow, he turned to look at him. Heart was asleep... so it was too late to ask.

He was going to ask to go to the forest. Animals always know when _it's_ about to happen, so he was hoping to hide under the leaves or a tree. Anything, as long as Heart did not see him... like that. Granted, Heart had seen him with stitches all over and a rib-exposing, gaping hole in his midsection all day, but... this was different. In fact, that was just how he was when Heart first looked at him... to Mad Rat's knowledge. The heart might have seen him before, judging by his knowledge of the surgery, but even then, the hole Heart had been hiding in all day was stuffed with exposed organs back then. That sight was arguably even worse than the stitched half-corpse appearance he had, but... appearance didn't matter. He knew Heart would rather see him alive in _any_ condition, instead of...

Heart could not see this. Mad Rat wouldn't allow it. The rat tried to prop himself up on a shaky hand, but quickly fell back down while barely stifling a cough. Fine, then. If he couldn't get up, maybe he could just scoot himself off of-... No, Heart might feel him move and wake up. If Mad Rat did it slowly and carefully, and Heart didn't wake up because of it, then-... No, Mad Rat was too weak to climb down from the windowsill. His only option was to fall and smack into the ground. Even if the sound of that didn't wake Heart... If his body was giving out this much, how could he make it into the forest in time?

The rat took one more look at his sleeping friend. "..."

He remembered conversations they'd shared before. He remembered how scared Heart was of this. Heart didn't want Mad Rat to leave, but... what was he supposed to do, let Heart die with him? Heart would have died to a surgery that would save neither of them and, with said surgery being in the morning, would have pointlessly cost them their entire last day. While there was no other decision Mad Rat could make, as he looked up at the other... he apologized, in his mind. He didn't dare wake the other. Heart wanted him to go peacefully, so the other won't wake him just to worry him about the pain Heart was going to feel in the morning, no matter how Mad Rat felt about it. 

_"... I'm sorry... You weren't supposed to see me like that... You were **never** supposed to... If I had just said something earlier, maybe..."_

Mad Rat sighed, stopping himself. As he had just gone over in his mind, no matter what he did now, Heart was going to see him lying there in the morning. Seeing someone close in such a state is already distressing to most, but... Mad Rat knew Heart would blame himself for it. Heart had actually _apologized_ to him earlier, because his cat heart didn't fix his rat body, however _that_ was supposed to work. To Heart, it was his fault. If the transplant had worked, not only would Mad Rat have lived on, but if Heart was still somehow conscious throughout their earlier adventure, maybe they would both would. They would have gotten to live on together... instead of Heart having to stare at what he would believe to be his own failure to save his closest friend in the morning.

Once again, Mad Rat was... well, mad. Not at Heart, and not at anyone, really. He couldn't be mad at his friend, who only wanted to spend his last day with him. And he wasn't. Mad Rat was just... mad at their situation, really. As he looked up at Heart again, he sighed before giving the other a promise.

"... Don't you _dare_ blame yourself about this... If you do... I swear, I'll haunt you forever... Y'hear me...?"

After a moment, he smiled, wheezing out a laugh as he looked back at the sun.

"Heh... You'd like that... wouldn't you...?"

And, for the last time, his eyes closed.

* * *

For the days after Mad Rat had stopped moving, Heart had been in a similar state. He would accept food and drink, but otherwise, he never moved. The cat spent his days curled up over where the humans had buried his friend. He would look at the girl and the other cat, when either visited him, but nothing else.

The girl's parents were troubled, both because of the cat's state and their daughter's. She was fine, but... she always seemed sad as she walked by a window or in and out of the house, seeing the cat like that along the way. The family had only had the cat for a day before it began acting this way, and yet...

Heart's state remained the way it was... until, one day, the girl's mother walked over to him. The cat's eyes flicked to the side to look up at her, before returning to their previous position to stare into nothing ahead of him. She knelt down next to him, and he saw her hands move in the corner of his vision... but she wasn't petting him. Curiously, he looked back at her...

... and saw the handmade rat plush she held, almost identical to his friend.

He immediately sat upright, staring for a moment before carefully taking the plush from her, tears flowing from his eyes. Heart layed back down and held the plush close, while the human walked away. He was a bit more active that day, sitting up when the girl came to greet him. She seemed to notice the change in his demeanor, and ran back inside the house for a moment. She brought a doll back with her, and tried to apparently tell him all about her, even though they both knew Heart understood none of it. Still, he would give the occasional meow when she seemed to ask something, holding his own doll close the entire time.

That night, still atop the grave, he stared at the plush, remembering a dream that he'd had on that night that was only a few days ago. Minutes before Heart had woken up to Mad Rat lying motionless next to him, he had a colorless dream. There was nothing in it, visually. Only sound.

Only a voice.

Only a promise.

"... Don't you _dare_ blame yourself... If you do... I swear, I'll haunt you forever... Y'hear me...?"

Once again, Heart's eyes began to water. "... You swore... You swore to me... I've been waiting for days, and I-..." He sighed, looking ahead before laying his head on the ground, pulling the plush up next to his face. "... You've already passed on... Haven't you...?"

Seconds later, a faint blue light caught Heart's eye, causing him to lift his head and look at the glow's source:

The ground.

A faint blue light began to emerge from the ground before sinking into the doll. Heart yanked his head back, causing the doll to flop onto its back from lack of support. Seconds after the light had faded into the doll, however... it sat back up.

His breath shaky, Heart stared at the doll. "... M-... Mad-...?" He got up, slowly walking to the doll's front. Once he did, the plush slowly tilted its head up, its button eyes almost seeming to stare into Heart's cat eyes. Its arm twitched, trying to move. The movements were as if it was getting used to even having any, as if whatever controlled the doll had not had a body to move in days, especially not one of fabric.

As if to prove his identity, slowly, shakily, the Mad Rat plush raised his paw to his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> 100 views in one week... Thank you! Honestly, I wasn't expecting y'all to like this so much.  
> Thanks for your support, I'm glad you all like it. Tbh every new comment brightens my day.


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